Friday
Drove from Lucca to Manciano – arrived about 11:30 am and easily found La Mama and Lori. That’s right “La Mamma” not “La Momie” which is French for “The Mummy” which we saw in Paris in 1999 with English subtitles to go along with the phony looking dubbed in French over English. We saw it on July 4th. Did you know they have July 4th in France too? I did. I think that’s why they gave us that statue and we bailed them out of two world wars. But that’s another story.
Had lunch at Il Refugio, Lori and Nana napped while we walked around town.
Discussed and debated the (already decided) US Presidential election with MaryAlice. Got things fixed up. Jim convinced Mary Alice to send a letter to the Pope beatifying President Elect Obama. So he’s got that going for him…which is nice. Late night snack at La Filanda (more about this FABULOUS restaurant later). Nice sunset from the window of our villa.
Saturday
Slept late and strolled again through Manciano. Shopped a little, saw the town church had lunch at da Paolina and then tried (in vain) to find the Olio Nuovo festival in Marsiliana, but to no avail, seems they put that poster up just to trick us Vno’s into driving to a town that has no people, no animals and certainly no olio nuova. They didn’t even have any olio vecchio. Hmmmmm.
After Marsiliana, we drove to the beach side resort town of Orbetello and had a (nother) tasty, tasty cappuccino. We basked upon the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea sipping our caaaaapppooooocheeeeeeneeee and nibbling on biscotti. Tough job if you gotta have one. The Tyrrhenean Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea. By the way, we can see the Tyrrhenean Sea from the windows of our VILLA in Manciano. That’s right, we can see it from our house! Can you? Betcha can’t. And we can smell Lorri Knauss from here too, but that’s a different problem to solve.
Cooked at home pasta (shocking, huh?) with some other italian stuff.
Slept late and strolled again through Manciano. Shopped a little, saw the town church had lunch at da Paolina and then tried (in vain) to find the Olio Nuovo festival in Marsiliana, but to no avail, seems they put that poster up just to trick us Vno’s into driving to a town that has no people, no animals and certainly no olio nuova. They didn’t even have any olio vecchio. Hmmmmm.
After Marsiliana, we drove to the beach side resort town of Orbetello and had a (nother) tasty, tasty cappuccino. We basked upon the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea sipping our caaaaapppooooocheeeeeeneeee and nibbling on biscotti. Tough job if you gotta have one. The Tyrrhenean Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea. By the way, we can see the Tyrrhenean Sea from the windows of our VILLA in Manciano. That’s right, we can see it from our house! Can you? Betcha can’t. And we can smell Lorri Knauss from here too, but that’s a different problem to solve.
Cooked at home pasta (shocking, huh?) with some other italian stuff.
Sunday
Slept late. Lori drove to Albinia to pick up Alice who wasn’t on the train from Roma. Oh well, this meant she had to have a (nother) coupla tasty, tasty cappucini and waited for the next train due in 2 hours later. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Jim, Nana and Jackie drove to the picturesque post-card quality fortified hill town of Pitigliano. OMGosh the whole town seems to grow out of the rocks. Spec-fr
iggin’-tacular as Jimmy likes to say. Terrific family style lunch spot in Pitigliano, then back to the ranch to circle up the wagons with Alice and Lori.
Dinner on Sunday night at La Filanda…again, spec-friggin’-tacular!!!! Chef Barbara (self-taught) and her husband Gian Paolo (sommelier) made a big deal dinner in honor of MaryAlice’s 83rd birthday. Barbara and her female staff members are in love with Jimmy The Thing. But you already knew that, didn’t you? So many good things.
Monday
Rain and sleet. So we started to go to Siena but only got as far as Scansano. Still a really great day because we came back to our villa for long, under the cover naps. Lori and Jackie headed to the local grocery store about 4:30 (when everything opens up after the customary chiuso period of 1:00pm to 4:30. At exactly 4:30:01 or as they say in EeeewwwwwRop, 1630:01, Every scarf wearin, sensible shoe sportin, droopy stocking modelin, apron displayin, mustache havin, dowager lookin Italian Mamma in all of Manciano showed up to engage in the Medieval combat sport known as grocery shopping. Suffice to say that the experience can best be described as roller derby, bumper car shopping…these Italians are still not convinced about this whole idea of “waiting”in line…it’s really more of a funnel effect where you push and jostle and when an opening occurs someone gets popped out into an open register and you damn well better be ready with your euro and bagging your own groceries. If you have never taken a whack to the side of the head from an Eggplant wielded by one of these trolls from under the bridge then you have not lived. The only thing that they don’t say about you after they throw an NHL quality hip check into your unsuspecting…well…hip, is “bless her heart!” Whew!! Some things are better in the US. Publix is one of them.
Rain and sleet. So we started to go to Siena but only got as far as Scansano. Still a really great day because we came back to our villa for long, under the cover naps. Lori and Jackie headed to the local grocery store about 4:30 (when everything opens up after the customary chiuso period of 1:00pm to 4:30. At exactly 4:30:01 or as they say in EeeewwwwwRop, 1630:01, Every scarf wearin, sensible shoe sportin, droopy stocking modelin, apron displayin, mustache havin, dowager lookin Italian Mamma in all of Manciano showed up to engage in the Medieval combat sport known as grocery shopping. Suffice to say that the experience can best be described as roller derby, bumper car shopping…these Italians are still not convinced about this whole idea of “waiting”in line…it’s really more of a funnel effect where you push and jostle and when an opening occurs someone gets popped out into an open register and you damn well better be ready with your euro and bagging your own groceries. If you have never taken a whack to the side of the head from an Eggplant wielded by one of these trolls from under the bridge then you have not lived. The only thing that they don’t say about you after they throw an NHL quality hip check into your unsuspecting…well…hip, is “bless her heart!” Whew!! Some things are better in the US. Publix is one of them.
Tuesday
Gorgeous weather, but cold. So off to Siena we went. 2 hour drive but well worth the trip. After Siena, Jim and Jackie headed southeast to Montepulciano (great town) and then back to Manciano via Pitigliano at night…wow wow wow…an even more fantastic photo-op.
Wednesday
Again gorgeous weather. Got up early, though, this day and drove to Orvieto (but not until after MaryAlice took a nose dive and twisted her foot, but did not break a hip). Orvieto is a great town if for no other reason than it has a funicular so you don’t have to climb the side of a rock face in order to see the Duomo (See reference above about MaryAlice’s dysfunctional foot).
After Orvieto it was off to Civita di Bagnoreggio. Probably the most spectacular vistas yet seen in Italy. This 2,
500 year old (yes I mean 2,500, some 390 years before Christ) town literally hangs from a ridge and is accessible only by a footbridge that is nearly straight up in some cases.
I hate to be redundant, but, yep spec-friggin’-tacular.
A general aside: What’s the deal with O?
Here in TuscanO, there are a lot of Os. Migliano, Manciano, Pitigliano, Orvieto, Marciano, Magliano, Poggio, Scansano, Sorano…you get the picture. I am pretty sure they have been spelling all these towns incorrectly. They should be spelled with an EAU at the end like Vienneau. This would save us all a LOT of trouble. Mancianeau, Pitiglianeau, Orvieteau. I like It. My mother will write a letter to the Pope and have this fixed.
Here in TuscanO, there are a lot of Os. Migliano, Manciano, Pitigliano, Orvieto, Marciano, Magliano, Poggio, Scansano, Sorano…you get the picture. I am pretty sure they have been spelling all these towns incorrectly. They should be spelled with an EAU at the end like Vienneau. This would save us all a LOT of trouble. Mancianeau, Pitiglianeau, Orvieteau. I like It. My mother will write a letter to the Pope and have this fixed.
2nd general aside: What is the deal with all the torture museums in all these medieval hill towns in Italy?
I mean, you can pay Euros, or even REAL money to take a tour of these charming little displays and see the knuckle crackers, the face peelers, the eyeball poppers, the tongue yankers, the racks, the dunking stools, the Opera, the Iron Maidens (the nasty coffin shaped box with spikes on the inside AND recordings of the ridiculously bad heavy metal band, both being torture devices) and many other harmless fun. The U.S. can’t even wire up some rag head’s gonads without some sort of human outcry, and Italy has built shrines to the practice. What is the deal? Is this rant wrong? I mean, should I not have mischaracterized and stereotypicized and generalized the Opera? I should be more careful.
Thursday
Thanksgiving Day. Spec-friggin’-tacular drive through Tuscan countryside to the Banfi winery in Montaclino. 5 course lunch with wine-pairings. And not a slice of turkey to be found. Not too shabby. Brunello di Montalcino with the cheese course. Yummy yummy. This is something we highly recommend!!! h
ttp://www.castellobanfi.com/ 
8 comments:
Look forward to seeing you in our restaurant another time.... thanks for all regards..
Nice to meet these fantastic people... one kiss for all!!!!
Barbara and Gian Paolo
FROM MANCIANO, MAREMMA, TOSCANA
Have no clue why you're dissin' me on your blog ... I'm not THAT stinky! ;)
You just lost yourself a devoted reader. Bummer for you.
Lorri: Just paraphrasing your creepy Uncle Kevin's thoughts. Just remember, if you cant make fun of other people, who can you make fun of?
Ahh, newsflash: If you can't make fun of other people, you can make fun of YOURSELF!! :)
Looks like your trip was fabulous. Would really appreciate a larger size photograph in your blog, though. You can do something bigger than "thumbnail" you know. BIGGER is BETTER.
Lorri, If you double click on the photo itself it will convert to full screen. (Disclaimer: for some reason when you do this it makes Aunt Jackie look like she is fat and middle-aged (every one else looks normal-just me). So you should ignore what I look like and just remember that I am stll thin and a brunette. :-)
Can't wait to see you and your little bambini.
Yeah, I do the click on the photo thing ... I just like to see a bigger photo within your text. I'm a big baby.
You always look incredible, Aunt Jackie. Hate you.
When you comin' this way to see the three beasts and me?
lorri, at first glance i read this as the 3 breasts...and i was very confused. i thought surely i would have know about this situtation when you were a baby...but now is see that you said beasts...i assume you are talking about your children and i would love to see them. we are currently at ruthie and mary's with their babies. jim an di will probably make a trip out to see the CO gang in the early spring if not before. much love.
Oh how thrilled we are that you had such a fun adventure! You certainly captured the "grit" of the coop. I still bob and weave as I go throught there. We would love for you to return and it would be really wonderful if we were in residence at the time.
Tanti Saluti,
Leone
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